Around 45 per cent of our neutering work is carried out by our branches. Working entirely unpaid, our volunteers advise owners, trap feral cats to neuter them, take them to and from vets, attend county shows and events and other charities’ roadshows. They are truly our unsung heroes in the battle to keep the UK’s cat population under control.

Our adoption centres (ACs) around the UK are staffed by full-time employees and volunteers. As well as devoting huge amounts of energy to the care of cats they look after, many of the staff are hugely active in neutering and monitoring the welfare of feral colonies. Many of the centres’ full time staff work unpaid in evenings to help with feral cat care.

We work with the PDSA and their Pet Aid Hospitals as a principle funder of subsidised cat neutering across the UK. This has enabled the PDSA to offer neutering for cats at all its hospitals.

We also support proactive community events led by the RSPCA and work jointly with a number of charities in London to offer free neutering through the London Cat Care and Control Consortium (C4) campaign.

We provide over half a million pounds worth of neutering vouchers to over 50 smaller charities to use to help them deal with the cat problem in their local area, especially in areas where we do not have a local volunteer branch. Our resources for this work are finite and the recruitment of new charities is very limited so we impose strict criteria when selecting groups to work with.

We also provide vouchers support to individual volunteers who help neuter feral cats in their local area. Please contact us on 03000 12 12 12 if you are interested in volunteering in an area currently with no CP branch.

We launched an innovative new initiative in 2009 with the help of statutory bodies. Dog Wardens, Environmental Health Officers, Housing Officers and Police Community Support Officers have become our eyes, ears, and, in many cases, wheels in communities where the cat population is causing problems. Local Authorities or Housing Providers are welcome to contact us for more information about joining the scheme.

Wherever you are in the UK, we can help with neutering. In areas where we do not have a local branch or adoption centre, we can still provide vouchers by post for owners or feral carers to neuter their cats. For more information call 03000 12 12 12 option 2 (lines open from 9.30am-1pm).